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Status Report – Information Sheets and Registration

Meet Laura.  She is part of our women’s leadership team, and she is in charge of organization of the retreat.  As we begin to plan for the retreat, she develops the Organizational Chart, which gives us a guideline and division of responsibilities for further planning of the retreat, and the  Retreat Planning Calendar, which keeps us on schedule.  She also shares responsibility for the preparation of the information sheet. Here is her status report:

“The ball is starting to ROLL!  Cheryl, Kathy and I are working on the information sheets which include the theme, retreat dates, guest speaker info, cost, location, deadlines, a registration card sample, etc.  We also prepared the letter to the pastor’s wives from other churches so that they will know how to handle their own registration. We usually take last year’s information sheets and just update them with the new year’s information.  One difference this year is that we will not be using Paypal as a payment option.  We will also not be catering lunch through the hotel, as it is very expensive.  We will have a longer lunch break during the day on Saturday, giving the ladies time to go to the wide range of eateries that surround the hotel.  We have also included a special note called “something new” that explains our reasoning for this change.  In order to keep costs down the ladies are encouraged to bring something along for lunch or some money so that they can buy anything from snacks to fast food to restaurant style meals.  In our case, the hotel has some on-property options and refrigerators in each room, so the ladies won’t have to leave the hotel to get lunch if they don’t have a vehicle for the weekend.”

Posted in: Journey to Retreat 2010, Registration, Retreat and Event Planning

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Journey to Retreat 2010-July update

In mid-July, our women’s ministry leaders met for our monthly meeting.  We are still four months away from the retreat, so while the retreat was on the agenda, it was not the main order of business. However, according to our Retreat Planning Calendar, some retreat deadlines are approaching.  Retreat Information Sheets were due to be finished on August 1.  Retreat information is then due to be sent to sister churches who may want to join us at this retreat.  And our Retreat Planning Meeting is scheduled on August 8. Registration for the retreat will begin in September. We reviewed these upcoming action items, and leaders with responsibilities in those areas gave status reports.  Next month, there will be more discussion about the nuts and bolts of the retreat.

Posted in: Journey to Retreat 2010

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The Missing Star

One year at our retreat, the women returned after their Saturday afternoon free time for a late afternoon session.  This session was to be kicked off by the third act of the retreat skit.  As we began to set up–oh no!  Our lead performer and main character was nowhere to be found.  We had people running all over the hotel searching for her, since we didn’t know her room number or have her cell phone number on hand.  Finally, unable to delay the session any further, we had to rearrange our schedule to fit the skit in later.  Of course, we soon found our star, and the show went on, but we learned something.  Now, we make sure that we have a list of each person involved in the skit and their cell phone number with us at the retreat AND, upon their check-in, we make sure that we have their room number.  It is easy for someone to get confused on the time, fall asleep during free time or be otherwise distracted.  But shame on us if we don’t know how to reach them.

Posted in: Lessons Learned

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Unfortunate, But True

Over the years, we have recognized an unfortunate fact:  a woman will appreciate the retreat more if she has made a personal investment in order to attend.

We used to go to great lengths to provide scholarships to women who couldn’t afford the expense of a retreat. If we had the means, we provided full scholarships for them to attend the retreat. Over the years, however, we observed that those women who were given full scholarships were the ones more likely to let a minor difficulty or hindrance keep them from attending the retreat, while those who had made a monetary sacrifice to attend the retreat made more of an effort to come, despite difficulties.

As a result of this observation, we made a change to our scholarship policy.  While we still want to provide financial help to those without the means to attend our retreat, we provide this help in the form of partial scholarships.  As a general rule, we now require that those who have expressed the need for scholarship help make some amount of personal investment–by paying whatever they can afford, or, at the very least, paying the non-refundable deposit.


Posted in: Lessons Learned, Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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Retreat Planning Calendar II

Retreat Planning Calendar I gave a basic overview of the use of this tool.  Now let’s be a little more specific on how we have determined a few of these deadlines.

Once we have booked the date and location for the retreat, a key date for the planning calendar is the date that the retreat location requires a final count and rooming list.  We work backwards from that date to set a final date of registration.  With our retreat being on November 12-13, our hotel has required the rooming list confirmation and BEO’s (Banquet Event Orders) on Nov. 3rd.  That means that registration must be completed prior to that date and we must have time to get the final rooming list done.  We have made Oct. 31st the deadline for our completion of the rooming list.   Since there can be challenges involved with getting the final rooming list prepared, we have allowed a little over a week between the end of registration (last day to sign up for the retreat) and the date that the rooming list is due to the hotel.  We like to have registration open for about a month, so registration for our retreat will begin on Sept. 19th and end on Oct. 20th.  We begin announcing the retreat in the bulletin about a month prior to the beginning of registration.

In summary:

Aug. 15       Bulletin announcements begin

Sept. 19       Retreat registration begins

Oct. 24        Last day to register

Oct. 31         Rooming list must be completed

Nov. 3          Rooming list due to hotel

Posted in: Retreat and Event Planning, Starting Points in Retreat Planning

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